Empty Space
by bensler18
Summary: Elliot has left and Olivia is struggling to come to terms with it. How will she cope without him? And what will she do when he finally gets back in contact? Inspired by the song Empty Space by James Arthur
1. Chapter 1

**This is set just after Elliot left. I am not folloeing the storyline from SVU, this is an AU story about Olivia and Elliot.** **Elliot is NOT married in this story and Eli doesnt not ecust (as Elliot and Kathy git divorced before he would have been conceived for this story)**

Chapter 1:

Olivia had just gotten home from a rough day at work. It had been 3 weeks since she found out her partner of over 11 years was never coming back. She had struggled to hold back the tears when her captain had informed her that they were looking for his replacement and she still hadnt come to terms with it.

 _flashback*_

 _Olivia stumbled out of Captain Cragen's office out of breath and speechless. Had he really just said that? Was Elliot really not coming back?_ _Olivia looked up and saw that her colleagues were staring at her waitjng to hear what was so upsetting, but she couldn't get any words out. She opened her mouth but the words were stuck in her throat. It was almost as if sayingit out loud made it real. So instead of talking, she ran..._

 _Tears were streaming down her face now and it was veconing even harder to breath. Olivia found herself on the roof, standing looking out at the city, wondering where on earth he could be._

Reality*

The woman kicked off her shoes once the door to her apartment was shut. Her keys were thrown somewhere near the kitchen, along with her badge and phone. Her government issue gun was stowed away in the cabinet next to the front door and she finally relaxed - well she relaxed as much as she could considering she had just spent 16 hours waiting for her perp to appear.

She made ger way towards her bedroom, discarding her clothes on the floor along the way. Once in the large room, Olivia rummaged through her drawers to find something to wear. She pulled out an oversized tshirt and shorts, pulled them on and without thinking headed to the kitchen. She automatically grabbed a glass and poured herself some wine. This had happened every evening for the past 3 weeks.

After drinking the enture bottle of wine Olivia's vision was beginning to turn blurry. She rubbed her eyes, willing it away however, like all the previous days it did not work. She shut her eyes tight waiting for the spinning feeling to stop. Once the feeling had disappeared she slowly opened her eyes again, she flicked the radio on and sat calmly listening to it. She wasn't paying much attention to the lyrics of each song, but when she realised that there were tears falling from her eyes. She tried to listen to the song that was currently on and the words broke her heart.

 _And I don't miss you,_

 _You're not in every single thing I do_

More tears graced her flushed cheeks as she thought of the man who had left her after a decade.

 _I_ _wanna tell all my friends,_

 _But I don't think they would understand._

 _It's somethin' l've decided,_

 _'Cause only you could fill this empty space_

Olivia sat crying for hours, thinking about her partner - correction _ex-_ partner. Once she finally stopped crying she pulled out her phone, dialled his number and waited... Only he never picked up. Just like the other 74 calls she had made to him, the phone went to voice mail, and her heart jumped slightly at the sound of his voice on the machine.

 _"I'm busy probably chasing a perp, leave a message or call back"_

"Hey, its me... again.. You need to call me back. We need to talk" Olivia sobbed down the phone

Sobs continued to echo out of her and around the empty apartment until Olivia had nothing left inside her. Her eyes drifted closed and she slowly drifted into a (not so) peaceful sleep.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2:

Another 7 weeks went by and Olivia still was not dealing with her partners departure very well. She had been given a new partner - Nick Amaro - but Olivia refused to work with him, any time they were meant to go out into the field she made up excuses as to why she should stay behind. However, today was the day that she was finally made to go in the field with him. They walked out of the precinct in silence, and had barely been out of the building for five minutes when Olivia realised she had left thekeys to the company sedan on her desk. The pair made their way back upstairs to get the keys, in silence once again.

Once back in the precinct Olivia made her way to her desk and found a small brown envelope on top of her keyboard. There was nothing written on the front of it but somehow she knew she should open it. She opened the seal on the envelope and slowly pulled out the small piece of white paper, along with a police badge. She froze as her eyes scanned over those three small words written in the middle of the paper. Her heart broke in two looking at the neat handwritting that she would recongise anywhere.

 _Semper Fi_

 _El_

As she looked at the paper her feeling of happiness that had left her and was slowly being replaced by anger. She threw the paper on her desk, puspushed herself off of her chair and stormed over to the captains office, walking in without knocking.

"Where is he?" Olivia seethed

"Excuse me detective?" Her captain questioned.

"Elliot... He left me a note and his badge on my desk. I was barley gone for five minutes so where is he? When did he come in?" Olivia asked again. She was keeping her voice stern to prevent her from crying again.

"Olivia you should talk to Stabler about that" The captain said sympathetically.

"How can I when he won't answer his phone" she shouted before storming out of the room.

All eyes were on Olivia as she stormed out of the office. She reached her desk and grabbed her phone out of her drawer, along with picking up the badge resting on her desk. Then she ran out of the precinct, down the 6 flights of stair and out of the building. She had been dialling his number as she went but it kept going to voicemail.

Thats when she saw him; of thought she saw him. She ran across the streetstreet shouting his name, but the man didn't turn. She finally reached him, grabbed his shoulder and spun the man round, only to find that it was him.

"Sorry I thought you were someone else" She sighed

She turned back around, heading towards the police building again. She was convinced that he had been there to drop off the envelope, but maybe, somehow he had got it to her without going to the 1-6. As Olivia reached the steps to the building she made one last attempt to call Elliot, expecting it to go to voicemail again, but she was in for a shock when it connected.

"Elliot?" She asked hesitantly, wondering if it had connected by accident.

"Turn around Olivia" his voice said through the phone.

The woman slowly turn with the police badge tightly wrapped in her hand. And that was when she saw him.

"Hi Olivia" He said, with a small smile on his face.

Olivia was speechless. There he was, her old partner, standing on the steps to the police precinct staring up at her. His piercing blue eyes were probing her brown ones. The phone fell from her hand as he took a step towards her, causing her to take a step back. She wanted to say something, to do something but she couldn't, she didn't know what to say to him. So she did tthe one thing that she was good at; she ran


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Olivia ran until her legs gave out. She had no idea how long she had been running for, or how far she had ran. All she knew was thag she had bailed. She had been begging to see her partner, to get an explanation and when the time came for that to happen, she bailed.

The woman came to a stop and looked around. She knew it was time for her to go back to the precinct, but what if he was still there? What if he wanted to talk? She began to walk back to the precinct, taking time to figure out what she would say or do when she got there.

Elliot watched as his best friend, his partner in crime, ran from him. he lnew she would want space, but he didn't want to leave her alone, not when she was so... vulnerable.

He pulled his keys out, got into his car and began to drive after the most amazing woman he had met. He watched from a distance as she came to a stop and stood thinking where she was, before turning back and heading in the direction she had just ran from. He watched as she walked back with the same sort of swagger that she had on cases, like she was on a mission. He watched as the rain started to fall as the woman walked.

Elliot knew he couldn't let her walk in this, so he pulled up along side her and rolled down the window.

"Get in the car Liv" he shouted out the window, giving the woman a fright

"What? Elliot, what are you doing here?" she shouted back refusing to get in the car.

"I wanted to make sure you were okay." he replied "Now get out of the rain and get in the car Olivia"

The woman debated not getting in the car, but the rain was starting to fall harder on her shoulders, so she gave in and climbed into the car. The pair sat in silence for what seemed like an eternity, until her soft voice broke the silence.

"Why Elliot?" she whispered

"Huh?"

"Why didn't you tell me?" she sighed

"I didn't want to hurt you. I knew if I told you before i did it, that I wouldn't be able to go through with it, and i couldn't do that, I couldn't stay" he replied as they pulled up to the precinct. Before he could say anyhing else, the woman exited the car and ran up the steps to the precinct.

Olivia made it up to the precinct, and went straight to the captains office.

"Benson, what can I do for you?" Cragen said, briefly looking up from his papers. "Benson?"

The older man looked up at the woman again and saw the tear stains on her cheeks.

"I.. I saw him. I can't do this. I can't do this without him" she sobbed

"Olivia" he sighed sympathetically, as he handed her a tissue "Liv, you need to take the day, go home, you are in no state to work today"

"No. I'll stay, i can stay"

"Olivia, thats an order. Go home" he asserted

The woman gave in for the second time that day. she wiped the tears from her face, and left the office for the day.

She made it home in short time, climbing the stairs 2 at a time. She had just closed the door to her apartment and was about to pour herself a drink, when her phone rang. Olivia looked at the caller ID and immediately declined the call.

The woman ran herself a warm bath, intending to block out the rest of the world when she climbed into it. She climed into the bath and sank as far into the bath as she could, allowing the bubbles to drift across her body. Her phone rang multiple times but she ignored each one, attempting to block out the sound.

Olivia eventually pulled herself out of the bath, wrapping herself in a towel and exiting the bathroom. She was about to get changed when there was a knock at the door. Eithout a second thought, she opened the door, to find her ex-partner standing in front of her.

"Elliot" she gasped, watching the man closely.

Olivia watched, as his eyes roamed her body. His eyes travelled down from her face, watching as a droplet of water ran down her neck, across her chest and between the valley of her breasts. He then let his eyes travel down her body.

"Elliot. What do you want?" Olivia asked, pulling him out of his trance.

"Can I come in? I want to talk"

"Fine."

The woman turned round and walked into the apartment, waiting for the man to follow. he began to follow her, allpwing his eyes to land onto her barely covered backside.

"I'm going to get changed, make yourself comfortable" Olivia told the man.

After a few minutes, the brown haired woman came back into the room in a large t-shirt and shorts.

"Here" she said handing him some mens clothes "Put these on, yours are wet"

Once both of them had changed into clean, dry clothes, they sat on the couch in silence, neither of them sure what to say to the other.

"I'm sorry that I didn't tell you, even after I did it. I am so sorry Liv. I just, I panicked. I couldn't stand to see the hurt in your eyes when i told you I was leaving. You were, no, you are the only woman in my life, you are my best friend, my partner in crime and you make me a better person whenever I am with you. I couldn't bring myself to see the pain i was about to cause. Im sorry" Elliot said, placing a hand onto the womans knee. "Olivia, you are so amazing, and i need you back in my life, please, can you forgive me?"

Tension built in the room as he waited for a response, but all Olivia could think about was the mans hand on her knee, the heat it was causing, and it was paralysing. She couldn't move, she couldn't think, she couldn't speak.

"Liv?" He asked moving closer to the woman.

She finally looked up at the man, looking into his beautiful baby blue eyes. She saw the worry, pain, even love in his eyes, and before either of them knew what was happening, she was gently placing her lips against his.


End file.
